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Euclides Rojas #56

Full Name:

Euclides Rojas

Uniform #:

56

Euclides Rojas is in his fifth season as the Bullpen Coach, having joined the Major League coaching staff on November 24, 2010. He served the Red Sox in the same capacity for two seasons (2003-04) and also spent 12 days in 1999 as the Florida Marlins Bullpen Coach.

During his tenure with the big league club, Pittsburgh's bullpen has produced the fourth-highest saves total among National League clubs (191) while posting the league's fifth-best bullpen ERA (3.25).

Rojas spent six years (2005-2010) as Pittsburgh's Latin American Field Coordinator and also worked for the Pirates as a roving minor league instructor in 2002 with an emphasis on the club's Latin American program.

Prior to joining the Pirates in January of 2002, Rojas spent five seasons as a coach in the Florida Marlins minor league system. He began his coaching career in the Gulf Coast League the same day he was released as a player by the Marlins on June 2, 1996.

After three more seasons (1997-99) with the GCL Marlins, Euky spent the 2000 season as the Pitching Coach for the Brevard County Manatees and was named the Florida organization's winner of the Carl Barger Player Development Person-of-the-Year award. His staff that season included A.J. Burnett, Dan Miceli, Brad Penny and Claudio Vargas, who won 10 games and was named to the Florida State League All-Star team.

A right-handed pitcher, Rojas pitched in the Marlins farm system in 1995 and retired as a player on June 2, 1996. He was also a member of the Cuban National Team from 1982-1994 and ranks as the all-time leader in Cuban baseball with 342 career relief appearances and 90 saves. His playing career also consisted of pitching on Olympic, World and Pan American championship teams.

Rojas served as a coach with Magallanes during the 2011-12 Venezuelan Winter League.

PERSONAL: Euclides Rojas...Wife's name is Marta...Has one son; Euclides Jr. (12/23/91)...Is a graduate of Jose Luis Arrunada High School in Cuba and a 1989 graduate of Havana University...Fled Cuba with 12 others crammed on a 15-foot raft in August of 1994...Drifted for five days until being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard...Spent six months at Guantanamo Bay before entering the United States, sponsored by Rene Arocha, the former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who had previously fled Cuba...Was selected by Florida in the 30th round of the 1995 First-Year Player Draft and signed by Marlins scout Dick Egan